At least one dead, 10 injured as building under construction collapses in Phuket

[Vacuum]

On 8/12/2019 at 12:20 AM, madmitch said:

Looks to me there's a chance of more debris falling......but only about half the people on site wearing hard hats. Not enough to go round?

No fines for walking without a helmut/hard hat....

[hansgruber]

5 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

The solution is to reduce reliance on migrant workers.  This would encourage employers to offer proper wages and conditions to attract indigenous workers, increasing numbers of whom are going to replaced in coming years by automation and AI.

Thailand doesnt automate. 

Just look at how lotto is sold here. 

Rest of the world it's done electronically. Here it's a bunch of poor guys walking around all day with a wooden tray trying to sell tickets. 

Automate the system and it puts 1000s out of work.

 

Thailand is easily 60 years behind in many cases. 

[Eloquent pilgrim]

8 hours ago, poohy said:

Eh?????

Apologies if my comment doesn't make any sense; it is simply because I was replying to a comment that has subsequently been deleted

[billythehat]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 8:26 AM, xylophone said:

I must have seen the "bad ones" then because in general the build quality where I live (around Patong) is and has been abysmal.

 

And as if to back that up some buyers of apts/condos here whom I know are experiencing major leaks in their places, and they were not cheap ones either.

 

Sad to hear that lives have been lost.

Sir, I agree with your comment about build quality as my own professional observations on such concur with the sentiment. About 10 years ago I was chatting to an American chap who was in the process of constructing a new hotel in Patong. He showed me some plans and after about 5 minutes I asked if these were preliminary sketches; “No, these are the ‘For Construction’ set” he said. I enquired as to where the dimension, levels, specification for the piling, etc. were. He just stared at the ceiling.

One thing I’ve noticed in a few of the comments posted on this thread is a common misunderstanding of the construction process and general structural design elements. Yes, I know that many are laymen and are just throwing in their 2 bobs worth and there’s nowt wrong in that. Not having the drawings or calculations to hand, all we have is a few photos of the collapse and some folk staring and pointing, so here’s my 2 cents.

One poster mentioned about the failure of the rebar; the beams are a composite beam of rebar and concrete where the rebar gives tension strength to a concrete member which is weak in tension but strong in compression. The failure was not caused by failure of the rebar but by a process known as disproportionate collapse whereupon the design loads are not supported adequately by the frame structure/foundations. Another comment was about the dead load of the rebar being a factor; this is unlikely as the cross-sectional area of rebar in a beam is normally in the range of 0.12 – 0.15 (min) of the total cross-sectional of a beam at that point. More likely is that the formwork was not adequately designed for the floor spans between the main structural columns. From the photos I noticed from one of the collapsed floors that steel mesh had been used instead of loose structural bars, usual for large floor spans. We usually only specify mesh on small or ground slabs to give structural support and to control cracking where loads are not excessive. So, poor design, materials and dire site supervision may be the order of the day amongst many other reasons in this instance. A few incumbents here also draw comparisons to some failures that have occurred in outer-earth but forget to mention that in outer-earth you can at least get something done about it.

[Damrongsak]

Collapses due to inadequate shoring or moving it too soon happen even in the West.  I was working summer construction as a kid when this building went down in 1973.  14 dead, 35 injured.  Builders got a slap on the wrist.  (Same contractor had an incident 5 years earlier that killed three men and injured 29 others.)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_Towers_collapse

 

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Damrongsak

[fullcave]

No liability. 

[Old Croc]

15 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Collapses due to inadequate shoring or moving it too soon happen even in the West.  I was working summer construction as a kid when this building went down in 1973.  14 dead, 35 injured.  Builders got a slap on the wrist.  (Same contractor had an incident 5 years earlier that killed three men and injured 29 others.)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_Towers_collapse

 

 

And just the other day in Reading:

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-49206090

[ChipButty]

I just hope them Burmese workers were taken care of I know life is cheap out here

[brian2f2f]

On 8/12/2019 at 10:41 AM, toofarnorth said:

Exactly what I thought on seeing the pics Assurancet posted.  Might look alright at ground level but looking from a drone ..........no thanks .

Thai expertise at its greatest.  lol